“It's all chemical. The whole universe is chemical. You're chemicals, I'm chemicals. Love, sadness, pain, grief -- it's all chemical." Refute, support, or qualify the above statement. To argue that biology and chemicals are not a huge part of romantic attraction and sexual fulfillment is to make a huge mistake. Of course chemicals and our “reptile brain” and its desires and needs are highly important. But they are not everything. There are important non-material factors at play in love that science cannot identify which are as important as the chemicals – love, trust, commitment, marriage.
Body Paragraph #1 – Evolutionary Anthropology
Body Paragraph #2 – Chemicals in Human Sexuality/Romantic Love
Body Paragraph #3 – What about love and “spiritual factors”?
BODY PARAGRAPH #3 EXAMPLE:
But to look at the neurochemical basis of love without talking about spiritual and cultural causes is to fail to see the whole picture. Back in the mists of time the ancient poets chant songs about heroes and lovers and sacrifice and romance. Our religions hand down to us the institution of marriage that has no real animal basis: we promise to be loyal to the death to one person – something that seems completely alien to our chemicals and the needs of our animal brains. We applaud the idealism of Romeo and Juliet to die rather than to live without the other. Love songs fill our airwaves and populate our iPod playlists. As Marie claimed, “We might not be able to describe it in words and cannot see it under a microscope, but we know love when we see and experience it.” Love and “soul mates” are hard to describe using only the science of chemicals and brain chemistry.
“It's all chemical. The whole universe is chemical. You're chemicals, I'm chemicals. Love, sadness, pain, grief -- it's all chemical." Refute, support, or qualify the above statement.
To argue that biology and chemicals are not a huge part of romantic attraction and sexual fulfillment is to make a huge mistake. Of course chemicals and our “reptile brain” and its desires and needs are highly important. But they are not everything. There are important non-material factors at play in love that science cannot identify which are as important as the chemicals – love, trust, commitment, marriage.
BODY PARAGRAPH #3 EXAMPLE:
But to look at the neurochemical basis of love without talking about spiritual and cultural causes is to fail to see the whole picture. Back in the mists of time the ancient poets chant songs about heroes and lovers and sacrifice and romance. Our religions hand down to us the institution of marriage that has no real animal basis: we promise to be loyal to the death to one person – something that seems completely alien to our chemicals and the needs of our animal brains. We applaud the idealism of Romeo and Juliet to die rather than to live without the other. Love songs fill our airwaves and populate our iPod playlists. As Marie claimed, “We might not be able to describe it in words and cannot see it under a microscope, but we know love when we see and experience it.” Love and “soul mates” are hard to describe using only the science of chemicals and brain chemistry.
THE BIOCHEMICAL DANCE OF COURTSHIP